I try to not be a Grinch, but seems like people could at least wait till Thanksgiving is over before going ***** out with Christmas.

Raleigh NC had their Christmas parade yesterday, Nov 18.

Two area radio stations cranked up the Christmas music today, Nov 19. At 0001 December 26 it will stop. If I never hear that damn Mariah Carey song again in my lifetime I will die happy.

Maybe old habits die hard. Growing up, the Christmas decorations were put up on Christmas Eve and taken down on Epiphany January 6, which my Grandma always called Old Christmas.

Course that was before it became a retail holiday.🙄

 

It's all about money...

 

Seen a guy with his Christmas tree strapped to the top of his car yesterday.Thatll have a nice pile of needles under it by the end of december!!

 

The kid put her tree up in her room last week, the wife got one Saturday. I sent the kid (15) this today

 

Eventually we will celebrate it year around

 

I think it will actually change to Ramadan-a-ding-dong

 

Gotta make a buck! 🙄

 

I think it's mostly just people wanting to be happy about something in these generally unhappy times. Christmas does that.

 

But is it as consumer-driven as all that, or is it just big corporations trying to expand their markets to make more money?

 

It's both. Certainly the appearance of Christmas items in stores is driven by businesses, but no corporation is making private homeowners decorate their houses for Christmas as soon as Halloween is over, which now seems to be happening more and more. That's what I mean when I say that people just want to have something fun and pleasant to think about.

 

Sing it with us: "Oooooooooh, baaay-baaaay."

 

Got some Jif peanut butter a month ago. It has Xmas trees on the label. Same store starts Xmas crap right after Halloween. Last Sunday listening to Xmas music, same store!

 

"RALEIGH (WTVD) -- While there's a lot of excitement surrounding the 2023 Raleigh Christmas Parade, many residents have just one question - why is the parade before Thanksgiving?

Well, there are a few reasons.

Jennifer Martin with Shop Local Raleigh said the tradition started back in the 1930s. The Raleigh Christmas Parade has been held the Saturday before Thanksgiving dating back to 1939.

The parade took a hiatus for a few years because of World War II.

Local merchants hold the parade the week before Thanksgiving to kick off the holiday season and to encourage you to shop local!"

 

I like to be done Xmas shopping by Dec 1. Then I don’t see any of the displays at the stores anyway. The only ads I’ll look at is car stuff. Lol

 

I am with ya Dan. 99.99% of the world's problems can be boiled down to one root cause....$GREED$. The other .01% is due to the adult children (Neanderthals) who have not yet learned how to play in the sandbox together.

The retail market has caused all of us to lose the sense of what these holidays are really celebrating... Xmas. Easter, Independence Day, Turkey day etc...Veterans day should be more prominent.

I've gone so far as to eliminate 99% of advertising from my life, life is good now. I'm looking to pick up that additional 1%.
No local or world news with an ad every 30 secs (depression & stress reduced) no local radio with its stupid ads, only streaming TV, Sirus radio, or my own music mix. Life is grand because I proactively choose to eliminate the BS versus following sheep off the cliff.

I look the other way walking into a retailer that puts xmas shizt out in October. Dam pumpkins are out when it's still 89° in August. Back to School tries to stamp out what's left of summer in July. Weather people are guilty of this too. I'm actually offended by it.

I liked it the way it was growing up. The last week of Nov or Dec 1st is when we started to think about xmas. Hell, I don't get into the spirit until the week before. I just don't like the retail market ramming it down my throat telling me what I should do. And if I don't somehow it leads to guilt, brilliant marketing, but I'm not biting. EX: not buying the SO a valemtines gift. I show her appreciation at least 11 out of 12 months. I don't need friggin hallmark day to gauge it. She says please don't spend money on that useless crap. She actually got pissed one year when I bought her a dozen roses. She said I can't believe you paid $80 for something that will be dead in a week and be $15 a dozen a week after V day. She gets it.

Hummm, let's see, the next hallmark-induced guilt trip is... St Valentine's Day. You should see that crap on December 15th followed shortly by rabbits laying chicken eggs then green 4 leaf clovers... wash rinse repeat.

 

Interesting about Raleigh Christmas parade. Burlington and Reidsville NC staged theirs last Saturday too, and my cousin from Mooresville was up yesterday and said that one is tonight 11/21.

A young gearhead buddy (he has a 67 Jeep J2000 4wd pickup) worked in Hobby Lobby in high school.

Week after Thanksgiving several years ago, he and I went out for a burger one night after he got off work. He said he would be glad when Christmas was over, because Hobby Lobby had put out Christmas merchandise right after July 4 and he was sick of looking at it.

I like the holidays, but there's a time and place for it. And that's NOT the whole third and fourth quarters of the retail year.

Maybe they're extending the retail season because of the backlash against Black Friday the last couple years.

 

If you include in the greed the lust for power as well as money, I certainly agree. Some people want to be rich and own everything, some people want to be God and own everyone.